6 months. i have no excuse. i'm so sorry.

Thanks to foxchick1 for the nudge. again.

Harry flopped down on the couch with a heavy sigh. The other students in the room chuckled. Tracy sat beside him and pulled his feet onto her lap, pulling his shoes off. "Long day?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. Once I get my control better it'll be okay. I think." He turned his head slightly to look around the room better. It was now the weekend following the second week of classes. The house elves had thrown themselves into making the social hangouts in the empty classrooms with vigour and had managed to make loads within the first few days. Some rooms were restricted by year group but mostly they were a free for all.

At the moment the room was mostly full of first years and a couple students from the quidditch teams who were being bombarded by the first years. The Slytherin quidditch team excluded of course. Most of the Slytherins came on the morning runs with everyone else or had their own runs at different times of the day. They would socialise with everyone else in the school, regardless of house. Especially the first years. All of the seventh years found it hard to socialise with each other, the Gryffindors and Slytherins especially, but were making an effort. The Slytherin quidditch team was the only ones not making an effort.

Harry turned back to Tracy. "What's everyone so excited about?"

Tracy smirked. "Flying lessons start next week. None of the Muggleborns have flown before, as well as some of the Half-Bloods and even a couple Pure-Bloods. Some parents don't let their kids fly or they can't easily access a public quidditch field."

Harry hummed. "I prefer the term New-Blood, rather than Muggleborn. Fits better with Half-Blood and Pure-Blood. And I usually say civilian rather than muggle." He flung an arm over his eyes. "Is flying class mandatory? I don't particularly like the idea of having a shaft of wood being the only thing keeping me in the air. I prefer flying under my own power." He yawned widely and glanced at Tracy who was frowning deeply.

"You don't have to do it if you don't want to... but... what do you mean fly under your own power? Can you do that?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. No one else can do my method though. It'd kill them if they tried..." he yawned again. It wasn't that he was sleepy, but his body was worn out after the rigorous tort- er training that Anna was having him do to learn how to control his magic better. Ironically enough, Anna's full name was Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanov. She was named after, and directly descended from, the famous Russian princess. She was also a descendant of the last Hogwarts Apprentice, Alexander Romanov. Their family had moved to England from Russia after their civilian relatives were killed.

He groaned. "My magic hurts."

Tracy laughed.

He looked at her. "No, seriously. It hurts. She's having me do so many different exercises it hurts now, like when you started running and your legs hurt afterwards? It's like that but worse!" he flopped his head backwards. "Thankfully I don't have to do it again until next Saturday."

Tracy chuckled again. "Well then, more incentive to get better faster then, isn't it? Now, are you coming down to dinner today?"

Harry shook his head. "No, I'll eat in my rooms. I've got tons of work to do."

Tracy mock glared at him. "Harry Irving, one of these days I will get you to eat with the rest of us mortals."

She had no idea what she'd just said, but all the same, Harry felt his chest tighten at the reminder of his unending life span. "And one of these days, I'll tell you why I can't." He waved over his shoulder and left the room. Once back within his rooms he headed down to the magic range downstairs and spent dinner shooting spells. He'd finally mastered all of the Novice tier spells he knew of as well as the new ones that Genis told him. He had a quick shower before mentally looking around the castle for his friends. Most of them had gone back to the hang out room they'd been in before dinner, but he could sense Luna out by the lake. He frowned and walked over to his window, trying to see if he could spot her. He hummed curiously and headed down, unable to see what she was doing from the window.

He sat on the ground near her and watched. She was simply standing with her arms outstretched, a surprisingly harsh wind whipping her hair around behind her. Eventually she sat down beside him and rested her head on his shoulder. "Mummy was a spirit of the wind. Not a wind sprite, sprites are different to spirits. She was... untameable. She was fierce but gentle, capable of soothing hurts and ills or causing untold damage. Wind is so versatile and unpredictable. It's formless but still strong enough to uproot trees. It was what caused Daddy to fall for her in the first place, she was so wild and free. He's told me stories about how they met, and their time together before I was born. I have a few memories of her, but not many. I was so young when she died." She looked up at the clouds streaking across the sky. "I like standing out in the wind. It makes me feel close to her."

Harry nodded and rubbed his head against hers gently. "I get that. Sometimes I just fly around in the sky to get away from everything. It helps me to feel closer to... the man I consider to be my father. His dad was an angel and he was a half-angel. I only saw his wings once but..." he smiled slightly. "It's what inspired my transformation in the first place. To be honest... I've never actually met him but..." he huffed. "Flying makes me feel closer to him."

Luna smiled and nodded. "Do you want to fly over the forest tonight? I can feel a lot of interesting things on the wind."

Harry nodded. "Sure. Are you doing flying classes with the other first years or does you being able to fly anyway exempt you from them?"

Luna smiled. "I'm joining in. It'll be interesting to see what it's like to fly on a broom." She stood up. "I'm going to write to daddy. He wants to know how I'm settling in before he goes away. He worries."

Harry grinned and stood up, brushing himself off. "He cares."

Luna gave him a strange look before frowning sadly. "He does..." she sighed and shook her head. "Have you heard anything of Sirius Black yet?"

Harry shook his head. "No. From what Hookfang told me after the trial, he was taken straight out of Azkaban and is in a hospital at the moment, hidden from everyone. He's got a lot of recovering to do before we're allowed to meet and even then..." he sighed heavily. "I have no idea what he's gonna be like. Will he expect me to be a miniature or my father? Will he expect me to adore the ground he walked on or want to follow in his footsteps? Will he see more of my mother in me? Honestly, I don't know. Ragnarock forwarded some letters to me but I've been too nervous to open them."

Luna smiled slightly. "You'll hear more soon. There's a jerming from the dinkymites that's been hovering in places she shouldn't be. A lot of information that should be hidden will be brought up."

Harry frowned and shook his head. "Right..." he huffed and began walking towards the castle, linking an arm with Luna's. "Well, I hope some secrets can stay buried."

"I'm sure you do, Harry Irving."

"You know I do, Luna Lovegood."

They laughed all the way back up to the castle and waved goodbye as Luna headed off towards Ravenclaw tower to write to her father. He headed back up towards his room, feeling like reading his parents journals again. Honestly, the more he read about them, the more he connected to them. It didn't feel wrong to think of them as his parents anymore. And honestly, from what was written about his grandparents, it would seem the Potter name wasn't quite as bad as he'd felt all these years.

Don't get him wrong, he wasn't going to give up the Irving name, and it meant he could stay away from all the hassle of the whole The-Boy-Who-Lived thing. He'd always been told that his parents were drunks that died in a car crash. That they'd gotten married because of him, that they were both unemployed and skill-less. He was now reading things to the contrary and, even though he'd always known the Dursleys had lied about his parents, it was... somewhat liberating to hear about them now, to know that all of that was completely false.

He sighed and flopped onto his couch, pulling his father's past one out of his bag to read. He'd read the future one later. He had a little bit more time this evening before his magic review session with Raine and Genis and then further swordsmanship training with Lloyd. He then had a couple hours free before it was safe for him and Luna to go out flying.

Finally the clock chimed eight and he put the book down, heading off downstairs to the magic range.

Genis smirked. "Alright, today we'll review all the spells you know and decide what to work on next week. Let's start with Novice tier."

Harry nodded and took a deep breath, got out his staff, looked down to the end of the range and quickly began firing spells off.

First was the fire spells, Fire Ball and Fire Wall, followed by water spells Champagne, Aqua Edge, and Aqua Spiral. He then followed it us with Wind Blade, Wind Arrow, Wind Edge, Wind Lance, Grave and Stone Blast before he had to stop a moment to catch his breath.

Raine nodded. "We're going to have to work on your rapid fire spells."

Genis nodded. "Yeah, and there is a slight delay between you switching elements. Is that you stopping to think on the next set of spells, or are you not good enough at switching element yet?"

Harry shrugged slightly. "I was pausing on purpose, but that's because I was thinking about how the next element is shaped. I'll get faster with practice and experience. I've been doing it wrong for years. It'll take me a while to learn to do it right instinctively." He stood up straight and huffed a breath and rolled his shoulders, tightening his grip on his staff.

The only Novice tier lightning spell was Lightning. Harry paused a moment before he looked up at Genis. "Why aren't there more lightning spells?"

Genis shrugged. "It's one of the harder elements. I'm not sure about other worlds that use magic like we do, but in my world, there aren't many lightning spells. It made fighting Volt a little easier at least."

Harry tipped his head slightly and moved on to the ice spells, Icicle, Ice Hammer, Ice Needles, Ice Wall and Freeze Hunter. Next was the easy one, the light spell Energy Blast. Harry sighed heavily, "Okay... here goes." He carefully shaped the magic and tried to pull on the power needed to cast it but couldn't gather enough power for the spell to have any affect.

Eventually he dropped the mana and sighed. "I can't. Spread Zero and Nightmare are beyond me."

Raine nodded. "I'm not surprised. You have so much light magic in you that darkness spells would be much harder for you to learn."

Harry huffed but nodded and moved on to the healing and support spells. As usual, he had no trouble casting them. Healing, Support and Light spells were the easiest for him to cast, due to the high concentration of light magic in his blood.

By the end of the hour and a half he'd just about managed to cast Spread Zero, though it was underpowered, and he'd moved on to learning the intermediate tier support spells.

Finally he was allowed to take a break and replenish his mana before his session with Lloyd, which, as per usual, was simply Harry spending the entire hour and a half dodging blades and spells and trying to take down his opponents.

He was vastly improving. In the beginning he kept getting tunnel vision towards whichever opponent he was trying to take out, leaving him open to attack from all the other enemies. Now he could see everyone at once, though he wasn't able to take them all down by the end of the session.

He did end up less injured though.

By the end of the session he's been defeated nine times, which was better than the day before, and had managed to take out more opponents each time than before.

Harry tiredly cast some healing spells on the minor cuts, bruises and burns before going to take a long shower and relax. He still had a few hours before Luna was due to arrive so he had plenty of time.

Once washed and fully healed Harry settled back down on the sofa and picked up his dad's journals. It was kind of funny that in the past journals, his dad wrote about all the pranks he'd pulled on people and how popular he was and how everyone knew he was the coolest kid in school, but in his journals written as an adult he kept insulting his childhood self, apologising to his victims and actually wrote the consequences of each prank, such as how long each person had to stay in the hospital wing recovering.

Even though he was still in their first year he could already see that their most often targeted person was Professor Snape.

Harry cast his mind down towards the dungeon and easily found Professor Snape's mind. He 'knocked' and the man lowered his mental shields.

"Irving?"

"Yes sir. I was just reading my dad's journals. He kept a good record of the pranks he'd pulled on people."

There was a brief silence before Snape's emotions slammed into Harry's mind. "Proud of him are you?"

"No. And by the end, neither was he. He and my mum spent some time reading over their old journals and writing about it from an adult perspective. He kept apologising for what he'd done. As a kid, he couldn't see that what he was doing was wrong, but after he married mum and had me, he saw that what he did was wrong."

"Hindsight is twenty twenty."

"I know. But I thought you would like to know that in the end, he regretted what he did and wanted to apologise to you."

Snape was silent for a moment and Harry was about to withdraw his mind when Snape spoke again. "What do you want from me, Irving?"

"Nothing. I just wanted you to know he was sorry, and if he could have, he could have apologised to you. Whether you accept that apology or not is up to you. It depends on whether you can forgive him or not. It's your choice, sir. Honestly, I haven't gotten to the end of your first year yet, but I don't think I would have. I don't think I could forgive my cousin for the years he bullied me and if it were anyone else, I wouldn't pass on the message. But this is my dad, I had to pass the message on at least."

Snape was silent for a moment longer. "I will think about it, Irving."

"Thank you." Harry pulled his mind back and went to lean back on the couch, only to jump in surprise at the sight of Luna standing right in front of him, her face inches from his. "Give a guy some warning next time." He stood up, one hand over his racing heart.

"You know, you need to set a password right?"

Harry chuckled and walked over to the window, opening it. "I'll do it when we get back, how about that?"

Luna grinned and jumped out of the doorway, landing on the open air level with the floor as if it were solid ground. Harry chuckled and spread his wings, with a quick mental scan to make sure there was no one on the floors below him he dropped down, letting his wings unfurl and catch the air, pulling up only inches from the ground. He skimmed along above the ground for a moment before pulling up and angling towards the forest, Luna darting along beside him, dipping and diving like a leaf caught on a breeze.

They weaved between the tips of the trees, laughing as they scattered owls from their perches. Harry dipped below the branches and weaved between the trunks, thankful that his wings didn't need to beat as often as you'd think for their size, and that he could remain aloft without moving them at all really.

He whizzed around a larger trunk and yelped, darting upwards and away from an arrow that launched at him. A young centaur burst through the bushes and ran off. Before Harry could question him several giant spiders burst from the branches. Most gave chase to the centaur but a few spotted Harry and figured he'd be an interesting meal. Harry whipped out his staff and fried them with a quick fireball before turning and dashing off towards the centaur. He cast his mind upwards. "Luna! Luna!"

"I know. I'll guide you both. He's right ahead of you, twelve o'clock."

Harry surged forward, blasting a couple of spiders with a few well placed Lightnings. He easily caught up with the main group and blasted a couple more spiders. The centaur looked up in shock before almost tripping on a log and focusing on where he was going.

"Harry, turn slightly to your right, two o'clock."

He dived down. "This way." He led the centaur. Blasting the occasional spider. Eventually they ran into a less dense patch of forest and the Centaur surged forward, waving Harry to follow him. Eventually they slowed down and stopped, realising that they hadn't seen a spider for a few minutes. The centaur fell to his knees and Harry dropped down next to him, tiredly folding his wings to his back. He cast a Cure and a First Aid to be on the safe side. "Are you alright?"

He nodded. "Yes... I..." he coughed and looked up. "Thank you... I... I don't..."

There was the sound of heavy hooves and Harry flared his wings, shooting off up into the branches.

The centaur reached up towards him. "Wait! Don't go!"

A group of about five older centaurs leapt into the clearing. One stepped forwards, kneeling down beside the young one. "Virden? Are you alright?"

He nodded. "Yes. A... I don't know... some kind of..."

Harry dropped onto a low branch. Holding his staff tightly in his defence.

Virden looked up at him. "Him. He saved me from the spiders."

The older centaurs all didn't seem to know how to react. The one kneeling down looked up at Harry. "Thank you, for saving my son." He then turned back to Virden and cuffed him around the head. "What were you thinking!? Going near the spiders? You know how dangerous that is!"

He scrunched his face up. "I'm sorry... but I wanted to get the herbs..." he held up the bag. "I got them though."

His father snorted angrily. "You were a damn fool for it!" he stood up and faced Harry properly. "Thank you for saving my son, from the spiders and his own stupidity. He is young and foolish."

Harry nodded, dropping down onto the forest floor to face the group properly, Luna gliding down between the trees with him. "It was nothing. Irving vow number two; Never Abandon Someone In Need."

A centaur that had stood to the side stepped forward. He had thick hair around his hooves and stood a good foot and a half taller than the others. He bowed slightly at the waist. "You are Harry Irving. I am Trace, the leader of the northern herd. The stars have told me a lot about you."

Luna leant closer. "Centaurs read the stars to tell the future. They rarely associate with outsiders. There are two herds in the forbidden forest. One in the north and one in the south. This area is in between the two and is mostly free territory, so long as neither of the two close in too much. They can't get too close anyway, because of the Acromantula."

Trace nodded. "The wind-child is right. We do not associate with many humans. The southern tribe especially. We will associate with those we believe can learn from our teachings, or special cases such as the two of you. Neither of you are human, and neither of you hold the prejudices that many humans do."

Harry nodded slowly. "Children don't hold those prejudices either."

He nodded. "And that is why we do not treat foals the same as we do adults."

Harry nodded slowly. "But if you associated with more humans the children would grow up into adults without the prejudices since they would have known you all since they were children."

Trace threw his head back slightly and whickered a laugh. "The stars were right about you, boy. You are going to change the world."

Harry grimaced at being called Boy but nodded none the less. "Thanks, I guess..."

Trace bowed his head before standing tall. "The colony of spiders has grown too large. We do what we can to keep them contained, but their numbers have grown once more and they are threatening to push all the other creatures back. We cannot afford to lose much more ground. Can you speak with the humans and see about having someone take care of the problem?"

Harry nodded slowly. "I know some people who would be happy to help."

Luna tilted her head at him. "Roland?"

"Roland." Harry turned back to Trace. "He'll be happy to help. He's always complaining about the lack of anything exciting nowadays. I'll send word when he's coming."

Trace bowed slightly. "Thank you, Harry Irving. May the stars shine brightly upon you." He stood up straight and all six galloped away through the trees.

Harry hummed slightly and he and Luna flew back up through the trees. "Well, that was eventful."

Luna laughed and zoomed further up into the sky, Harry shooting after her with a few beats of his wings. It felt good to feel the air between his feathers again after so long. He hadn't dared to fly after Sinistra had seen him. He'd missed the rush of dipping and diving around in the sky, knowing there was nothing but his own wings to keep him aloft. They raced around between the clouds for a few more hours before calling it a night and flying back in through Harry's window.

Harry dispelled his wings and flopped down onto the sofa, Luna dropping down beside him and curling into his side. Harry wrapped an arm over her shoulders and tipped his head back against the couch. "Thanks."

"No problem. You looked like you needed a good fly." Luna turned her face up towards him. "Things are brewing in the path of the fates. Many things have already changed from the original design and dark events are looming on the horizon."

Harry looked down at her, frowning slightly. "What kind of things?"

She shrugged. "I'm not sure. We'll know it when we see it."

Harry frowned at the ominous tones of her words but relaxed back into the couch, watching Luna slowly drift off to sleep. He carefully scooped her up and carried her into his bedroom, settling her down on his bed and pulling the covers up over her.

.oOo.

Harry sat at the Hufflepuff table for breakfast, sipping juice and reading The Daily Scroll. He watched as Susan opened her copy of the Daily Prophet. Most people now read the Scroll instead of the Prophet, but several students (mostly Gryffindors) stuck to reading the Prophet. Some students, like Susan, read both, if only to keep up to date on the gossip the rest of the world is reading about.

Susan scowled dropping a copy of the Daily Prophet on the table. "Honestly, I have no idea how the woman does it, but Skeeter's gone too far this time, Everyone! Listen to this!" Everyone nearby quieted down and looked towards her. Susan was generally a quiet girl and despite Harry promising to get to know her better she didn't really stand out from the crowd. He could see her watching quietly and taking everything in, but she rarely spoke out. To hear her gathering attention towards her was something of a surprise and everyone quieted down much faster than Harry had been expecting.

"'By now, everyone knows what has happened with Harry Potter. Details of the trial itself have been kept very quiet for a long time but this reporter has managed to get a hold of some inside information' what she doesn't say is that it's classified information. She's gonna be in a lot of trouble for this. Anyway, she goes on to talk about the trial and has released a copy of the Potters' Wills. That's private!"

Hannah scowled. "You don't publish stuff like that unless you have permission from their next of kin..." she snorted. "Disgusting, honestly."

Susan nodded. "Yeah, but get this, Sirius Black wasn't the Potters' Secret Keeper. Apparently after the trial they pulled him out of Azkaban and he's been in a private hospital recovering. Aunty told me that they wanted him to recover properly before they announce it all officially. He's still not well enough yet and even if he were, Potter would know long before the papers ever did."

Hannah gasped. "What if he didn't know about Black being his godfather? What a way to find out!"

Susan frowned and nodded. "Yeah." She shook her head. "I'm sure he knew. It was in the will and all and it was brought up at Dumbledore's trial."

Harry nodded and picked up the copy of the Prophet, confirming that the will was an actual copy of the wills, genuinely surprised to find out that it was. "How does she do this?"

Susan shrugged. "We wish we knew. The DMLE can't arrest her without reason but now that she's got classified information like this, then they can bring her in for questioning."

Harry smirked slightly and nodded. "Good." He looked up as Hedwig flew in and headed towards him with a letter. He'd written to Roland after Luna had gone to sleep and sent Hedwig off. He wasn't surprised to find such a swift reply.

Harry,

You are amazing. It's been more boring than usual around here since you left.

I'd be more than happy to help you with those spiders, just let me get some more volunteers and we'll write your headmistress for permission to use the forest entrance on the school grounds since it's closest to the spiders.

See you in a few days, Roland.

Harry smiled and folded the letter, putting it into his bag.

He looked around at everyone, deep in discussion about Harry Potter, Sirius Black, Rita Skeeter and the whole situation, several people bringing Dumbledore into the conversation to blame him for the whole thing.

It reaffirmed Harry's decision to not let anyone know he was Harry Potter.